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CHILDREN  AND  THEIR 

BOOKS  ^.,:. 


BY 


James  Hosmer  Penniman,  Litt.  D. 


SYRACUSE,    N.    Y, 

C.   W.  BARDEEN,  PUBLISHER 


Copyright,  1921,  by  C.  W.   Bardeen 


CHILDREN  AND  THEIR  BOOKS 


The  most  vital  educational  problem  will 
always  be  how  to  make  the  best  use  of  the 
child's  earlier  years,  not  only  for  the 
reason  that  in  them  many  receive  their 
entire  school  training,  but  also  because, 
while  the  power  of  the  child  to  learn  in- 
creases with  age,  his  susceptibility  to  forma- 
tive influences  diminishes,  and  so  rapid 
is  the  working  of  this  law  that  President 
Eliot  thinks  that 

"the  temperament,  physical  consti- 
tution, mental  aptitudes,  and  moral 
quality  of  a  boy  are  all  well  deter- 
mined by  the  time  he  is  18  years  old." 
Great  waste  of  the  child's  time  and  mental 
energy  in  the  precious  early  years  is  caused 


521242 


4  Children,  and  their  books 

by  (disregard  of  thf^  way  in  which  his  mind 
unfolds.  Not  oriiyare  children  set  at  work 
for  which  they  are  not  yet  fitted,  but  fre- 
quently they  are  kept  at  occupations  which 
are  far  below  what  they  might  profitably 
engage  in.  The  child  should  be  guided, 
not  driven;  to  force  his  mind  is  an  educa- 
tional crime.  Long  continued  attention 
and  concentration  are  injurious,  but  by 
using  tact  a  great  deal  may  be  accom- 
plished without  strain. 

At  first  the  aim  should  be  not  so  much 
to  fill  the  mind  with  knowledge  as  to  de- 
velop the  powers  as  they  are  ready  for  it, 
and  to  cultivate  the  ability  to  use  them. 
The  plasticity  of  the  child's  mind  is  such 
that  a  new  impression  may  be  erased  quick- 
ly by  a  newer  one;  his  character  receives  a 
decided  bent  only  through  repeated  im- 
pressions of  the  same  kind.     The  imagin- 


Children  and  thei^  ^ho/:ks  5 

ative  faculty  is  one  of  tVe  e?ir>ie?ttO  ao^'esr, 
and  a  weakness  of  our  educational  systems 
is  the  failure  to  realize  its  importance  and 
to  pay  sufficient  attention  to  its  develop- 
ment. It  is  well  known  that  imagination 
is  the  creative  power  of  the  mind  which 
gives  life  to  all  work,  so  that  without  it 
Newton  would  never  have  found  the  law 
of  gravitation,  nor  Columbus  have  dis- 
covered America.  The  world  of  make- 
believe  is  filled  with  delight  for  the  small 
child.  He  loves  stories  of  imaginary  ad- 
venture that  he  can  act  out  in  his  play, 

"Now  with  my  little  gun  I  crawl 
All  in  the  dark  along  the  wall, 
And  follow  round  the  forest  track 
Away  behind  the  sofa  back. 
I  see  the  others  far  away, 
As  if  in  fire-lit  camp  they  lay; 
And  I,  like  to  an  Indian  scout, 
Around  their  party  prowled  about." 


6  .  ,  Children  und  their  books 

:  ..Cultivate' his  imscgination  by  helping  the 
child  to  image  what  he  has  read.  Let  us 
play  that  we  are  saiHng  with  Columbus 
in  a  little  ship  over  the  great  green  ocean. 
When  we  look  far  off  from  the  top  of  a 
wave  we  see  nothing  but  sky  and  white- 
capped  water;  all  around  us  are  angry 
faces  and  angry  waves. 

It  is  easy  to  work  on  the  emotions  of  a 
little  child  and  thoughtless  persons  may 
find  it  amusing  but  it  is  a  serious  matter, 
for  it  has  an  injurious  effect  upon  his 
nerves.  Ghost  stories  and  books  which 
inspire  fear  of  the  supernatural  often  do 
much  harm  to  imaginative  children. 

The  boundless  curiosity  of  the  child  may 
be  aroused  and  stimulated  so  that  he  gets 
to  knov/  himself  and  the  v/orld  about  him 
in  a  way  that  furnishes  him  with  constant 
and  dehghtful  employment.     The  growth 


Children  and  their  books  7 

of  his  mind  is  rapid  and  healthful,  because 
he  is  reaching  out  to  comprehend  and  verify 
and  apply  to  his  own  purposes  the  know- 
ledge that  he  derives  from  books  and  that 
which  he  obtains  from  observation.  It  is 
not  easy  to  realize  the  ignorance  of  chil- 
dren. Dr.  G.  Stanley  Hall  found  by  ex- 
periments with  a  large  number  of  six- 
year-olds  in  Boston,  that  55  percent  did 
not  know  that  wooden  things  are  made 
from  trees.  The  world  is  strange  to  them; 
they  must  grope  their  way,  they  are  at- 
tracted by  the  bright,  the  flashy,  the  sen- 
sational, and  their  tastes  will  develop  in 
these  directions  unless  they  are  taught 
better.  Grown-ups  estimate  in  terms  of 
previous  experience;  the  child  has  had  little 
previous  experience  to  which  to  refer. 
Edward  Thring  says: 

"The  emptiness  of  a  young  boy's  mind 


8  Children  and  their  books 

is  often  not  taken  into  account,  at  least 
emptiness  so  far  as  all  knowledge  in  it 
being  of  a  fragmentary  and  piecemeal  de- 
scription, nothing  complete.  It  may  well 
happen  that  an  intelligent  boy  shall  be 
unable  to  understand  a  seemingly  simple 
thing,  because  some  bit  of  knowledge  which 
his  instructor  takes  it  for  granted  he  pos- 
sesses, and  probably  thinks  instinctive,  is 
wanting  to  fill  up  the  whole." 

To  impart  the  desire  for  knowledge  and 
the  power  of  getting  it  is  next  to  character- 
building  the  most  important  work  of  the 
school.  Encourage  self -activity  to  the 
fullest  extent.  When  the  child  asks  a  ques- 
tion be  careful  not  to  put  him  off  or  dis- 
courage him,  but  if  it  is  possible  to  show 
him  how  to  find  the  answer  for  himself 
do  so,  even  at  the  expense  of  considerable 
time  and  trouble.     Aid  that  quenches  cu- 


Children  and  their  books  9 

riosity  retards  mental  growth.  Many  chil- 
dren ask  questions  merely  for  the  sake  of 
talking,  and  forget  the  question  before 
they  have  heard  the  answer.  As  the  child 
gradually  becomes  able  to  use  them  show 
him  how  to  employ  books  as  tools.  Keep 
reference  books  on  low  shelves  or  tables 
in  convenient  places,  where  it  is  easy  to 
get  at  them.  Show  the  child  that  the 
dictionary,  the  atlas,  and  the  encyclo- 
paedia contain  stores  of  knowledge  accu- 
mulated by  the  work  of  many  scholars  for 
many  years  and  laboriously  classified  and 
arranged  for  the  benefit  of  seekers  after 
information.  Show  him  how  to  investi- 
gate a  subject  under  several  different  titles 
and  how  to  get  what  he  needs  from  a  book 
by  the  use  of  the  table  of  contents,  index, 
and  running  head  lines,  and  how  to  use 
card  catalogues  and  Poole's  Index.     Help 


10  Children  and  their  books 

him  to  look  up  on  the  map  the  places  he 
reads  about.  Explain  the  scale  of  miles 
and  teach  him  to  use  his  imagination  in 
making  the  map  real;  show  him  that  the 
dots  represent  towns  and  cities  with 
churches,  parks,  and  trolley  cars,  and  that 
the  waving  lines  are  rivers  on  which  are 
steam  boats  carrying  the  productions  of 
one  section  to  another. 

As  he  grows  older  teach  him  to  draw  his 
own  conclusions  from  conflicting  state- 
ments and  to  preserve  the  happy  medium 
between  respect  for  the  authority  of  books 
and  confidence  in  his  own  observation. 
Most  boys  and  girls  do  not  observe  and 
they  do  not  think;  they  have  no  opinions 
except  those  made  for  them  by  others. 
We  are  too  apt  to  cultivate  the  memory 
and  to  neglect  observation,  imagination, 
and  judgment.     The  result  is   a  wooden 


Children  and  their  books  11 

type  of  mind  which  has  too  great  respect 
for  printed  matter  and  little  initiative  in 
accurate  observation  and  in  using  the 
imagination  and  the  judgment  in  making 
what  has  been  observed  and  read  practi- 
cally useful. 

Encourage  the  child  to  talk  about  what 
he  reads  in  a  natural  way,  but  do  not  allow 
him  to  become  a  prig  by  saying  what  he 
supposes  you  would  like  to  have  him  rather 
than  what  he  really  thinks. 

Do  not  be  too  eager  to  stamp  your  in- 
dividuality upon  the  child;  he  has  a  right 
to  his  own.  Find  out  what  his  tastes  and 
inclinations  are  and  develop  him  through 
them.  Ascertain  what  he  is  really  inter- 
ested in;  very  often  it  is  something  quite 
different  from  what  you  suppose.  His  point 
of  view  is  different  from  yours.  Trans- 
late what  you  wish  him  to   be  interested 


12  Children  and  their  books 

in  into  terms  of  his  own  life  and  experi- 
ence. Success  in  education  comes  to  a 
great  extent  from  skill  in  establishing  re- 
lations between  what  the  child  already 
knows  and  that  which  you  wish  him  to 
acquire. 

No  part  of  education  has  more  to  do 
with  character-building  than  the  incul- 
cating of  a  love  of  good  literature.  S. 
S.  Laurie  calls  literature  "the  most  po- 
tent of  all  instruments  in  the  hands  of 
the  educator,  whether  we  have  regard 
to  intellectual  growth  or  to  the  moral 
and  religious  life".  "It  is  easy,"  he  says, 
"if  only  you  set  about  it  in  the  right  way, 
to  engage  the  heart  of  a  child,  up  to 
the  age  of  eleven  or  twelve,  on  the  side 
of  kindliness,  generosity,  self-sacrifice;  and 
to  fill  him,  if  not  with  ideals  of  greatness 
and  goodness,  at  least  with  the  feelings 


Children  and  their  books  13 

or  emotions  which  enter  into  these  ideals. 
You  thus  lay  a  basis  in  feeling  and  emo- 
tion on  which  may  be  built  a  truly  manly 
character  at  a  later  period — without  such 
a  basis  you  can  accomplish  nothing  ethical, 
now  or  at  any  future  time.  But  when 
the  recipient  stage  is  past,  and  boys  begin 
to  assert  themselves,  they  have  a  ten- 
dency to  resist,  if  not  to  resent,  professed- 
ly moral  and  religious  teaching;  and  this 
chiefly  because  it  then  comes  to  them  or 
is  presented  to  them  in  the  shape  of  ab- 
stract precept  and  authoritative  dogma. 
Now,  the  growing  mind  of  youth  is  keen 
after  realities,  and  has  no  native  antago- 
nism to  realities  merely  because  they  hap- 
pen to  be  moral  or  religious  realities.  It  is 
the  abstract,  preceptive,  and  barren  form, 
and  the  presumptuous  manner  in  which 
these  are  presented  that  they  detest.     How, 


14  Children  and  their  books 

then,  at  this  critical  age  to  present  the 
most  vital  of  all  the  elements  of  education, 
is  a  supremely  important  problem.  It  is 
my  conviction  that  you  can  only  do  so 
through  literature;  and  the  New  Testa- 
ment itself  might  well  be  read  simply  as 
literature.  The  words,  the  phrases,  the 
ideals  which  literature  offers  so  lavishly, 
unconsciously  stir  the  mind  to  lofty  mo- 
tives and  the  true  perception  of  the  meaning 
of  life.  We  must  not,  of  course,  commit 
the  fatal  blunder  of  making  a  didactic  les- 
son out  of  what  is  read.  We  take  care 
that  it  is  understood  and  illustrated,  and 
then  leave  it  to  have  its  own  effect." 

Children  behave  better  when  their  minds 
are  occupied;  an  interest  in  literature  has 
proved  in  numerous  instances  to  be  an 
aid  to  discipline  in  the  schoolroom.  It 
is  sad  to  think  how  little  that  is  refining 


Children  and  their  books  15 

and  elevating  comes  into  the  lives  of  many 
children.  The  attitude  of  the  average 
school  boy  toward  life  is  shown  by  the 
fact  that  he  refers  to  any  stranger  as  a 
"guy".  The  rough  horse  play  of  the 
movies  fills  such  a  boy  with  exquisite  de- 
light. To  see  on  the  screen  a  man  have  a 
lot  of  dough  slapped  in  his  face  is  the 
highest  form  of  humor.  His  mind  is  ac- 
tive but  it  has  no  suitable  nourishment. 
What  is  needed  is  to  direct  it.  President 
Angell  has  told  us  how  boys  were  inspired 
by  that  great  teacher  Alice  Freeman 
Palmer: 

"I  attended  a  class  in  English  Literature 
which  she  was  teaching.  The  class  was 
composed  of  boys  from  fifteen  to  eighteen 
years  of  age,  in  whom  one  would  perhaps 
hardly  expect  much  enthusiasm  for  the 
great  masters  of  English  Literature.     But 


16  Children  and  their  books 

it  was  soon  apparent  that  she  had  those 
boys  completely  under  her  control  and 
largely  filled  with  her  own  enthusiasm. 
They  showed  that  at  their  homes  they  had 
been  carefully  and  lovingly  reading  some 
of  the  great  masterpieces  and  were  ready 
to  discuss  them  with  intelligence  and  zest.*' 

"Mind  grows,"  says  Carlyle,  "like  a 
spirit — thought  kindling  itself  at  the  fire 
of  living  thought." 

To  keep  the  heart  open  to  elevating 
influences,  to  enjoy  really  beautiful  things, 
to  take  a  dignified  and  noble  view  of 
life,  these  are  the  results  that  must  fol- 
low association  with  the  best  thoughts 
of  the  best  minds,  which  is  literature. 
And  it  is  one  of  the  wonders  of  litera- 
ture that  some  of  the  best  of  it  is  adapt- 
ed to  every  order  of  intelligence.  When 
one   gets   older   his   mental   field  widens, 


Children  and  their  books  17 

he  cannot  then  read  all  the  best,  he 
must  choose;  but  the  classic  books  for 
children  are  not  so  numerous  that  the 
child  may  not  read  and  reread  them. 

Cultivation  of  the  literary  taste  of  the 
child  may  begin  as  soon  as  he  can  talk. 
He  will  early  take  an  interest  in  simple 
stories  and  poems  and  sooner  than  many 
suppose,  he  may  be  taught  to  read  those 
which  he  has  already  learned  by  heart. 
From  the  beginning  reading  should  be 
easy  and  interesting.  The  child  should 
look  forv/ard  to  it  with  pleasure.  He  loves 
stories,  let  him  see  that  the  best  of  them 
are  in  books  told  by  better  story  tellers 
than  he  can  find  elsewhere.  Help  the 
child  to  appreciate  the  book,  to  take  an 
intelligent  interest  in  it,  and  gradiially 
lead  him  up  to  that  love  of  the  best  which 
is    the    foundation    of    culture.     Do    not 


18  Children  and  their  books 

think  that  he  can  see  all  there  is  to  enjoy 
at  the  first  reading;  a  book  is  classic  be- 
cause it  may  be  read  over  and  over  and 
always  show  something  that  was  not  seen 
before.  There  is  a  distinction  which  teach- 
ers and  parents  do  not  always  recognize 
between  books,  which  are  beyond  the  child 
merely  because  of  the  hard  words  in  which 
the  idea  is  clothed  and  those  in  which  she 
thought  itself  is  above  his  comprehension. 
"Children  possess  an  unestimated  sensi- 
bility to  v/hatever  is  deep  or  high  in  im- 
agination or  feeling  so  long  as  it  is  simple 
likewise.  It  is  only  the  artificial  and  the 
complex  that  bewilder  them,"  said  Haw- 
thorne, and  because  of  his  knowledge  of 
this  fact  he  wrote  his  exquisite  classics  for 
children.  The  phraseology  of  books  is 
frequently  different  from  that  to  which 
the   child   is   accustomed.     He   must    be 


Children  and  their  books  19 

taught  to  understand  thought  as  expressed 
in  printed  words,  his  vocabulary  is  limited ; 
in  reading  aloud  he  will  often  pronounce 
words  correctly  without  any  idea  of  what 
they  mean  and  far  more  frequently  than 
you  imagine  he  will  receive  a  wrong  im- 
pression by  confusing  words  like  zeal  and 
seal  of  similar  sound  and  totally  different 
meaning.  A  teacher  accidentally  found 
out  that  her  class  supposed  that  the  "kid" 
which  railed  at  the  wolf  in  Aesop's  fable 
was  a  little  boy,  and  I  have  had  a  child 
tell  me  that  he  saw  at  Rouen  the  place, 
where  Noah's  ark  was  burned;  of  course 
he  meant  Jeanne  d'Arc.  "The  mastery 
of  words"  says  Miss  Arnold  is  an  essential 
element  in  learning  to  read.  Our  common 
mistake  is,  not  that  we  do  such  work  too 
well,  but  that  we  make  it  the  final  aim 
of  the  reading  lesson,  and  lead  the  children 


20  Children  and  their  books 

to  feel  that  they  can  read  when  they  are 
merely  able  to  pronounce  the  words." 
"Observation  has  convinced  me"  wrote 
Melvill  Dewey  "that  the  reason  why  so 
many  people  are  not  habitual  readers  is, 
in  most  cases,  that  they  have  never  really 
learned  to  read;  and,  startling  as  this  may 
seem,  tests  will  show  that  many  a  man 
who  w^ould  resent  the  charge  of  illiteracy 
is  wholly  unable  to  reproduce  the  author's 
thoughts  by  looking  at  the  printed  page." 
Children  make  their  first  acquaintance 
with  books  from  the  pictures.  They  like 
plenty  of  them  with  brigh  t  colors  and  broad 
simple  treatment  and  prefer  a  rude  sketch 
with  action  to  the  finest  work  of  Walter 
Crane  or  Kate  Greenaway.  Illustrations 
should  help  the  child  to  understand  the  sto- 
ry. Pictures  of  historic  places  and  objects 
and  adequate  reproductions   of  works   of 


Children  and  their  books  21 

great  artists  are  of  value  later,  for,  while  the 
aesthetic  .sense  of  the  child  may  be  culti- 
vated by  surrounding  him  with  the  beau- 
tiful— flowers,  pictures,  books,  a  recogni- 
tion of  the  fact  that  the  love  of  the  ar- 
tistic is  of  comparatively  late  development, 
will  prevent  much  discouragement. 

The  child  learns  from  his  reading  what 
kind  of  a  world  he  lives  in,  through  books  he 
also  becomes  acquainted  with  himself  and 
with  his  tastes  and  abilities  and  sometimes 
he  finds  out  from  them  what  he  is  fitted  for 
in  life.  When  carefully  directed,  reading 
may  be  made  to  cultivate  common  sense, 
self-reliance,  initiative,  enthusiasm,  and 
ability  to  turn  one's  mental  and  physical 
capital  to  the  best  advantage  and  to  make 
the  most  of  one's  opportunities — qualities 
which  ensure  success  in  life,  and  it  also 
should  cultivate  the  affections  and  those 


22  Childreyi  and  their  books 

kindly  feelings  which  make  the  world  a 
better  place  to  live  in.  Try  to  interest 
the  child  in  books  which  give  true  and 
noble  ideas  of  life  where  wrong-doing  brings 
its  natural  consequences  without  too  much 
preaching.  The  moral  should  not  be  drag- 
ged in,  the  day  of  the  sugar-coated  pill  in 
literature  is  past.  The  right  books  are 
those  that  teach  in  a  straightforward  way 
that  character  is  better  than  superficial 
smartness,  that  success  does  not  alvrays 
m.ean  the  accumulation  of  a  large  amount 
of  money  and  that  it  is  not  a  matter  of 
luck  but  that  it  depends  upon  perseverance 
in  faithful  work;  books  which  develop  the 
child's  sympathies  by  teaching  considera- 
tion for  the  feelings  of  others,  kindness  to 
animals  and  to  all  weak  and  dependent 
creatures.  Lack  of  reverence  is  common 
in   the   youth   of   today   and   books   and 


♦ 


Children  and  their  books  23 

papers  which  ridicule  old  age,  filial  duty 
and  other  things  which  ought  to  be  rep- 
spected  are  all  too  common.  Few  have 
added  more  to  the  happiness  of  mankind 
than  he  who  has  written  a  classic  for  chil- 
dren. It  takes  very  unusual  qualities  to 
write  for  them.  Sympathy  with  the  child: 
brightness  and  simplicity  of  diction  are 
much  rarer  than  one  would  suppose  until 
he  seeks  for  them  with  the  child.  The 
first  requisite  of  a  book  is  that  it  should 
interest  the  child,  the  next  is  that  it  should 
inspire  and  uplift  him.  The  imparting  of 
information  is  less  important,  but  what- 
ever information  the  book  contains  should 
be  accurate  and  useful.  When  a  child  has 
learned  to  appreciate  those  classics  which 
are  suited  to  his  comprehension  he  will 
not  be  likely  to  waste  his  time  on  such 
futile  things  as  tales  of  imaginary  adventure 


24  Children  and  their  books 

thickened  with  a  little  inaccurate  history. 
He  will  prefer  books  which  describe  what 
really  happened  to  those  which  tell  what 
someone  writing  long  after  thinks  possibly 
might  have  happened. 

We  have  a  good  deal  of  nervous  pros- 
tration now-a-days  but  little  refining  leis- 
sure.  Shorter  days  of  labor  give  more  spare 
time  and  the  schools  can  render  a  great 
service  to  the  nation  by  teaching  how  to 
make  the  best  use  of  this  time  and  by 
creating  the  desire  to  devote  a  part  of  it 
to  the  reading  of  good  books  and  especially 
to  the  reading  of  the  American  classics. 
How  few  resources  most  persons  have  in 
themselves  and  how  flat  and  unprofitable 
their  lives  are.  They  devote  their  mo- 
ments of  leisure  to  killing  time,  when  asso- 
ciation with  the  right  reading  in  early  life 
would  have  taught  them  to  cultivate  that 


Children  and  their  books  25 

inward  eye  which  has  been  called  the  bliss 
of  solitude.  He  who  has  a  love  of  reading, 
however  limited  his  means  or  however 
restricted  his  opportunities  may  give  him- 
self, if  he  will,  a  good  education.  He, 
who  has  a  taste  for  good  books  in  youth, 
will  rarely  read  anything  else  in  maturer 
years. 

"From  the  total  training  during  child- 
hood" says  President  Eliot,  "there  should 
result  in  the  child  a  taste  for  interesting  and 
improving  reading,  which  should  direct  and 
inspire  its  subsequent  intellectual  life. 
That  schooling  which  results  in  this  taste 
for  good  reading,  however,  unsystematic 
or  eccentric  the  schooling  may  have  been, 
has  achieved  a  main  end  of  elementary  edu- 
cation; and  that  schooling  which  does  not 
result  in  implanting  this  permanent  taste 
has  failed.     Guided  and  animated  by  this 


26  Children  mid  their  hooks 

impulse  to  acquire  knowledge  and  exercise 
his  imagination  through  reading,  the  in- 
dividual will  continue  to  educate  himself 
all  through  life.  Without  that  deep-rooted 
impulsion  he  will  soon  cease  to  draw  on  the 
accumulated  wisdom  of  the  past  and  the 
new  resources  of  the  present,  and  as  he 
grows  older,  he  will  live  in  a  mental  at- 
mosphere which  is  always  growing  thinner 
and  emptier.  Do  we  not  all  know  many 
people  who  seem  to  live  in  a  mental  vacuum 
— ^to  whom  indeed,  we  have  great  difficulty 
in  attributing  immortality  because  they 
apparently  have  so  little  life  except  that 
of  the  body?  Fifteen  minutes  a  day  of 
good  reading  would  have  given  any  one 
of  this  multitude  a  really  human  life.  The 
uplifting  of  the  democratic  masses  depends 
on  this  implanting  at  school  of  the  taste 
for  good  reading." 


Children  and  their  hooks  27 

The  great  men  of  letters  have  usually 
been  those  who  have  been  accustomed  to 
good  books  from  the  mother's  knee.  Where 
the  taste  for  reading  has  not  been  in- 
herited it  must  be  acquired  by  continuous 
effort  and  some  of  the  world's  greatest 
achievements  have  been  made  by  men 
who  toiled  on  in  poverty  and  distress  to 
improve  their  faculties.  There  is  no  fact 
more  uniformly  evident  in  the  biographies 
of  great  men  than  that  they  read  great 
books  in  youth.  Nicolay  and  Hay  say  of 
Abraham  Lincoln: — 

"When  his  tasks  ended,  his  studies  be- 
came the  chief  pleasure  of  his  life.  In 
all  the  intervals  of  his  work — in  which  he 
never  took  delight,  knowing  well  enough 
that  he  was  born  for  something  better 
than  that,  he  read,  wrote,  and  ciphered  in- 
cessantly.    His  reading  was  naturally  lim- 


28  Children  and  their  books 

ited  by  his  opportunities,  for  books  were 
among  the  rarest  of  luxuries  in  that  region 
and  time.  But  he  read  everything  he 
could  lay  his  hands  upon,  and  he  was 
certainly  fortunate  in  the  few  books  of 
which  he  became  the  possessor.  It  would 
hardly  be  possible  to  select  a  better  hand- 
ful of  classics  for  a  youth  in  his  circum- 
stances than  the  few  volumes  he  turned 
with  a  nightly  and  daily  hand — the  Bible, 
"Aesop's  Fables,"  "Robinson  Crusoe," 
"The  Pilgrim's  Progress,"  a  history  of  the 
United  States,  and  Weem's  "Life  of  Wash- 
ington". These  were  the  best,  and  these 
he  read  over  and  over  till  he  knew  them 
almost  by  heart.  But  his  voracity  for 
anything  printed  was  insatiable.  He  would 
sit  in  the  twilight  and  read  a  dictionary 
as  long  as  he  could  see.  He  used  to  go  to 
David    Turnham's,    the    town    constable, 


Children  and  their  books  29 

and  devour  the  "Revised  Statutes  of  In- 
diana," as  boys  in  our  day  do  the  "Three 
Guardsmen."  Of  the  books  he  did  not 
own  he  took  voluminous  notes,  filling  his 
copy-book  with  choice  extracts,  and  poring 
over  them  until  they  were  fixed  in  his 
memory.  He  could  not  afford  to  waste 
paper  upon  his  original  compositions.  He 
would  sit  by  the  fire  at  night  and  cover 
the  wooden  shovel  with  essays  and  arith- 
metical exercises,  which  he  would  shave 
off  and  then  begin  again.  It  is  touching 
to  think  of  this  great-spirited  child,  battling 
year  after  year  against  his  evil  star,  wasting 
his  ingenuity  upon  devices  and  make- 
shifts, his  high  intelligence  starving  for 
want  of  the  simple  appliances  of  education, 
that  are  now  offered  gratis  to  the  poorest 
and  most  indifferent.  He  did  a  man's 
work  from  the  time  he  left   school;   his 


30  Children  and  their  books 

strength  and  stature  were  already  far  be- 
yond those  of  ordinary  men.  He  T^TOught 
his  appointed  tasks  ungrudgingly,  though 
without  enthusiasm;  but  when  his  employ- 
er's day  was  over  his  own  began." 

Boys  like  Abraham  Lincoln  may  be  re- 
lied upon  to  direct  their  own  reading,  but 
the  average  child  is  unable  to  do  this. 
An  important  thought  which  is  not  ahvays 
kept  in  mind  by  educators  is  stated  thus  by 
Huxley: —  "If  I  am  a  knave  or  a  fool, 
teaching  me  to  read  and  write  won't  make 
me  less  of  either  one  of  the  other — unless 
somebody  shows  me  how  to  put  my  reading 
and  writing  to  wise  and  good  purposes." 
It  is  not  easy  to  interest  in  real  literature 
a  child  whose  father  reads  nothing  but 
newspapers  and  whose  mother  derives  her 
intellectual  inspiration  from  novels,  but 
such  a  child  at  least  lives  in  a  home  where 


Children  and  their  books  31 

there  are  books,  though  of  an  inferior  kind, 
and  there  is  warmth  and  good  lights  and 
leisure  to  read  in  quiet  and  comfort.  How 
different  is  the  case  of  the  poor  child,  who 
comes  from  a  tenement  where  a  large 
family  congregate  in  one  room,  where  the 
wash  is  drying,  where  younger  children  are 
playing,  there  is  little  light,  and  no  books 
of  any  kind.  It  is  with  the  occupants  of 
such  homes  that  the  children's  librarian 
does  the  m.ost  wonderful  work.  To  see  a 
ragged,  barefooted  child  come  into  a  pala- 
tial public  library,  knowing  that  he  has  a 
right  to  be  there  and  going  directly  to  the 
shelf  choose  a  book  and  sit  down  quietly 
to  enjoy  it  gives  hope  for  the  future  of  our 
country.  Consider  the  influence  of  such 
a  child  in  his  home;  he  not  only  interests 
his  brothers  and  sisters  in  good  books,  but 
also  his  father  and  mother.     One  such  child 


32  Children  and  their  books 

asked  a  librarian  "Will  you  please  start 
my  father  on  some  new  fairy  tales,  he  has 
read  all  the  others."  According  to  the 
New  York  Public  Library  "Reading  room 
books  have  done  more  to  secure  clean  hands 
and  orderly  ways  from  persistently  dirty 
and  disorderly  children  than  any  remedy 
hitherto  tried."  There  should  be  enough 
copies  of  suitable  books  and  they  should 
be  kept  on  low  shelves  where  the  children 
can  have  direct  access  to  them.  When 
we  spend  millions  teaching  children  to 
read,  we  should  be  wilHng  to  go  to  some 
expense  in  order  to  provide  them  with 
what  is  worth  reading.  It  is  im-possible 
for  those  who  have  not  studied  the  sub- 
ject to  realize  the  quantity  of  inane  trash 
with  which  many  children  stultify  their 
minds.  They  read  so  much  that  their 
thought  is  confused  and  they  cannot  even 


Children  and  their  books  33 

remember  the  names  of  the  books  whose 
pages  are  passing  before  their  eyes.  The 
market  is  flooded  with  books  ranging  from 
the  trivial  to  the  harmful  which,  unless  he 
is  properly  directed,  will  divert  the  child 
from  the  real  books  which  he  should  read 
and  read  again.  "Ninety  children  out  of 
one  hundred  in  the  public  schools  below  the 
high  school,"  says  Caroline  M.  Hewins, 
read  nothing  for  pleasure  beyond  stories 
written  in  a  simple  style  with  no  involved 
sentences.  Nine  out  of  the  other  ten  en- 
joy novels  and  sometimes  poetry  and  his- 
tory wTitten  for  older  readers,  and  can  be 
taught  to  appreciate  other  books,  but  not 
more  than  one  in  a  hundred,  has  a  natural 
love  of  the  best  literature  and  desires 
without  urging  to  read  the  great  books  of 
the  world,"  and  she  adds  "vStories  of  the 
present  day  in  which  children  die,  are  cm- 


34  Children  and  their  books 

elly  treated,  or  offer  advice  to  their  elders, 
are  not  good  reading  for  boys  and  girls  in 
happy  homes." 

To  fonn  an  impression  on  the  white 
page  of  the  child's  mind  is  a  great  privi- 
lege as  well  as  a  grave  responsibility.  He 
who  makes  sin  attractive  in  a  child's  book 
or  dims  the  clear-cut  distinction  between 
right  and  wrong  will  never  be  able  to 
measure  the  far-reaching  consequences 
of  his  work.  The  child's  reading  should 
be  constructive  rather  than  destructive. 
He  should  learn  what  to  imitate  rather 
than  what  to  avoid,  but  it  is  preferable 
that  he  should  get  necessary  knowledge 
of  the  evil  side  of  human  nature  from  a 
classic  like  Oliver  Twist  than  from  his 
own  experience  or  from  cheap  thrillers. 
The  boy  needs  to  be  kept  from  the  vulgar 
cut-throat   story,   the   girl   from  the   un- 


Children  and  their  books  SS 

wholesome  romance.  Girls  should  read 
books  that  exalt  tihe  sweet  home  virtues. 
Cheap  society  stories  are  not  necessarily 
immoral  but  they  give  false  ideas  of  life, 
warp  the  mind  and  encourage  selfishness. 
The  nonnal  boy  reads  the  easiest  and 
most  exciting  thing  that  comes  to  hand, 
he  devours  detailed  accounts  of  baseball 
and  football  matches  and  is  familiar  with 
the  record  of  every  player.  The  books  he 
reads  deal  with  deeds  rather  than  descrip- 
tions. He  likes  a  story  that  he  can  act 
out  with  not  too  many  characters  and  with 
one  central  figure,  he  identifies  himself  with 
the  hero  and  undergoes  in  imagination  his 
dangers  and  triumphs,  he  likes  play  with 
a  purpose  to  it,  he  is  always  trying  to 
make  something,  to  accomplish  something; 
he  feels  unconsciously  that  he  is  part  of  the 
organic   whole   of  the   universe   and   has 


36  Children  and  their  books 

work  to  do.  The  charm  of  books  like 
Robinson  Crusoe  and  the  Swiss  Family 
Robinson  consists  in  the  fact  they  per- 
sonify and  epitomize  the  perpetual  struggle 
of  mankind  with  the  forces  of  nature.  The 
boy  takes  up  fads;  for  a  while  all  his  in- 
terests are  concentrated  in  boats,  then 
in  postage  stamps,  then  in  something  else. 
His  mind  must  be  occupied,  if  we  cannot 
fill  it  with  good  the  bad  will  get  in.  En- 
courage the  boy  to  read  books  like  Tom 
Brown,  or  Captains  Courageous  .which 
show  moral  worth  expressed  through  phys- 
ical activity.  When  he  has  been  interested 
in  the  deeds  described  in  such  a  book  have 
him  do  something  of  a  similar  character  to 
impress  the  lesson  on  his  mind,  for,  as 
Herbert  Spencer  states: — 

"Not   by  precept,   though  it   be   daily 
heard;  not  by  example,  unless  it  be  fol- 


Children  and  their  books  37 

lowed,  but  only  through  action,  which  is 
often  called  forth  by  the  relative  feeling, 
can  a  moral  habit  be  formed."  and  Ed- 
ward Thring  says: — 

"Boys  or  men  become  brave,  and  hardy, 
and  true,  not  by  being  told  to  be  so,  but 
by  being  nurtured  in  a  brave  and  hardy 
and  true  way,  surrounded  with  objects 
likely  to  excite  these  feelings,  exercised  in 
a  manner  calculated  to  draw  them  out 
unconsciously.  For  all  true  feeling  is  un- 
conscious in  proportion  to  its  perfection." 
Building  up  knowledge  without  cultivating 
the  power  to  use  it  is  of  small  value.  Im- 
pression should  go  hand  in  hand  with  ex- 
pression. Knowledge  does  not  become 
power  until  you  use  it.  Children  should 
read  a  great  deal  and  reading  should  be 
made  attractive  to  them.  The  amount 
of  real  literature  suited  to  their  taste  and 


38  Children  and  their  hooks 

comprehension  is  not  large  and  as  much 
as  possible  of  it  should  be  read.  Matthew 
Arnold  says  that  school  reading  should 
be  copious,  well  chosen  and  systematic. 
There  is  often  a  great  difference  between 
the  books  which  the  child  reads  when 
under  observation,  and  those  to  which  he 
resorts  for  solace  and  comfort  and  turns 
over  and  over  again  when  he  is  alone.  The 
latter  are  the  ones  that  stamp  his  char- 
acter. The  school  and  the  public  library 
can  never  take  the  place  of  the  home 
library.  It  is  the  books  that  we  own  that 
influence  us.  The  child  should  know  the 
joy  of  the  ov/nership  of  books  and  there 
is  no  better  way  to  interest  him  in  them, 
than  by  giving  them  to  him  one  by  one  as 
he  reads  them.  He  should  have  a  place 
where  he  may  keep  them  in  safety  and 
should  be  taught  to  respect  them  and  to 


Children  and  their  books  39 

keep  them  clean.  His  books  should  have 
all  the  charm  that  pretty  and  durable 
binding,  clear  type  and  bright  pictures  can 
give  them.  When  trash  is  serv^ed  up  in 
so  many  alluring  forms  something  must 
be  done  to  make  literature  attractive.  It 
is  not  enough  that  the  child  is  reading  what 
will  do  him  no  harm,  his  attention  should 
be  concentrated  on  the  permanent  classics 
which  are  suited  to  his  comprehension  and 
taste.  He  who  does  not  read  Aesop  and 
Robinson  Crusoe  and  the  Wonder  Book 
in  youth  will  very  likely  never  read  them 
at  all.  There  are  a  number  of  books  like 
The  Pilgrim's  Progress,  which  are  con- 
stantly referred  to  but  seldom  read.  A 
great  deal  of  the  time  and  mental  energy 
of  children  is  wasted.  The  total  freedom 
from  books  and  from  all  other  refining 
influences  during  vacations  is  as  unneces- 


40  Children  and  their  hooks 

sary  as  it  is  deplorable.  Kn  hour  a  day 
wisely  employed  and  directed  during  the 
summer  would  give  a  boy  or  girl  an  acquain- 
tance with  Longfellow  or  Hawthorne,  that 
would  be  a  joy  and  inspiration  in  all  after 
life.  The  study  of  the  author's  biography 
in  connection  with  his  works  has  an  educa- 
tional value  which  nothing  else  can  replace. 
Consider  the  influence  of  a  thorough  ac- 
quaintance with  Longfellow  or  Lowell. 
The  atmosphere  which  surrounded  them, 
the  things  that  interested  them,  the  sources 
of  their  inspiration,  the  way  in  which  the 
common  experiences  of  life  grew  beautiful 
under  the  influence  of  their  poetic  imagina- 
tion would  be  a  civilizing  force  throughout 
life.  That  chance  is  to  but  a  small  extent 
a  factor  of  success,  that  nothing  is  at- 
tained by  the  brightest  mind  without  that 
infinite  patience  and  labor  which  in  itself 


Children  and  their  books  41 

is  genius,  the  brave  way  in  which  such  men 
met  trial  and  adversity: — these  are  lessons 
which  are  not  studied  as  they  should  be. 

Because  the  imagination  is  developed 
early,  children  are  able  to  find  a  real  de- 
light in  poetry  even  when  it  is  beyond 
their  complete  understanding.  Sir  Walter 
Scott  says: —  "There  is  no  harm,  but,  on 
the  contrary,  there  is  benefit  in  presenting 
a  child  with  ideas  beyond  his  easy  and  im- 
mediate comprehension.  The  difficulties 
thus  offered,  if  not  too  great  or  too  frequent, 
stimulate  curiosity  and  encourage  exer- 
tion." 

As  a  melody  once  heard  keeps  on  re- 
peating itself  in  the  ears,  so  a  beautiful 
thought  makes  an  impression  upon  the 
mind  that  may  never  be  effaced.  Charles 
Eliot  Norton  says: — 

"Poetry   is   one   of   the   most   efficient 


42  Children  and  their  hooks 

means  of  education  of  the  moral  sentiment, 
as  well  as  of  the  intelligence.  It  is  the 
source  of  the  best  culture.  A  man  may 
know  all  science  and  yet  remain  unedu- 
cated. But  let  him  truly  possess  himself 
of  the  work  of  any  one  of  the  great  poets, 
and  no  matter  what  else  he  may  fail  to 
know,  he  is  not  without  education." 

The  inspiration  and  delight  derived  from 
familiarity  with  the  best  poetry  is  one 
of  the  most  precious  results  of  education. 
The  child  should  be  made  to  understand 
that  school  training  is  but  the  preparation 
for  the  broader  education  which  it  is  his 
duty  and  should  be  his  pleasure  to  acquire 
for  himself;  and  to  this  end  it  is  essential 
that  he  be  so  taught  that  after  leaving 
school  he  may  look  not  to  the  newspaper 
and  the  last  novel  for  his  ideals,  but  to 
the  high  and  worth}^  thoughts  of  the  classics 


Children  and  their  books  43 

and  especially  of  the  poets  of  America. 
Many  of  the  most  inspiring  deeds  of  our 
history  have  been  embodied  in  poems  like 
Paul  Revere' s  Ride  with  which  every 
child  should  be  familiar.  The  works  of 
Longfellow,  Whittier,  Lowell  and  Holmes 
abound  in  teachings  of  the  highest  form  of 
American  patriotism  and  in  character 
studies  of  the  great  men  who  have  made 
our  country  what  it  is.  The  poetry  that 
we  have  known  and  loved  in  childhood  has 
from  its  very  association  a  strength  and 
sweetness  that  no  other  can  have.  It  is 
to  be  regretted  that  children  are  by  no 
means  as  familiar  with  poetry  as  the}^ 
should  be  and  that  the  old-time  custom  of 
committing  poetry  to  memory  is  not  more 
general.  Bryant  has  wisely  remarked  that 
"the  proper  office  of  poetry  in  filling  the 
mind  with  delightful  images  and  awakening 


44  Children  and  their  hooks 

the  gentler  emotions,  is  not  accomplished 
on  a  first  and  rapid  perusal,  but  requires 
that  the  words  should  be  dwelt  upon  until 
they  become  in  a  certain  sense  our  own, 
and  are  adopted  as  the  utterance  of  our 
own  minds."  The  value  of  reading  poetry 
aloud  is  very  great.  Few  school  children 
do  it  well,  and  it  is  especially  difficult  for 
them  to  avoid  reading  in  a  sing-song  way 
with  a  decided  pause  at  the  end  of  every 
line.  "Accuracy  of  diction  says  Ruskin 
means  accuracy  of  sensation,  and  pre- 
cision of  accent,  precision  of  feeling." 
Reading  poetry  aloud  is  therefore  an  ac- 
complishment worthy  of  earnest  cultiva- 
tion. ' '  Of  equal  honor  with  him  who  writes 
a  grand  poem  is  he  who  reads  is  grandly," 
Longfellow  has  said,  and  Emerson,  "A 
good  reader  summons  the  mighty  dead  from 
their  tombs  and  makes  them  speak  to  us." 


Children  and  their  books  45 

To  sit  still  and  listen  attentively  is  a  polite 
accomplishment  and  to  reproduce  accurate- 
ly what  one  has  heard  is  as  practically  use- 
ful as  it  is  unusual. 


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UNIVERSITY  OF  CAUFORNIA  LIBRARY 


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